West Warwick, R.I. ? They chainsmoked, dialed and redialed cell phones and hugged friends tight. But hope faded to mourning for the families of the 96 victims of the nightclub inferno, as coroners examined wedding rings and tattoos, and identified the first 15 bodies Saturday.

Officials say it could take many days more to identify the remainder, as most of the bodies in the state morgue are charred beyond recognition. They publicly urged dentists to turn over dental charts to state coroners, in hopes of making quick matches.

Estelle St. Pierre has sat for 36 hours with her sister, waiting for her sister’s son and his wife to return. Asked if they held out any hope, St. Pierre shook her head: “I guess she’s really feeling reality setting in. It’s wicked.”

An additional 81 people remain hospitalized, 25 in critical condition. Officials have yet to identify one of the most critically ill patients.

Federal, state and county authorities, meanwhile, continued an investigation that they said could lead to criminal charges — but refused to offer details. The fire, which began during a pyrotechnics show by a rock band, incinerated patrons and The Station, a wood-frame nightclub in this old, close-knit mill town of 29,000, just southeast of Providence.

Fingers point

Officials are focusing on who approved the decision to light an illegal pyrotechnic display just as the heavy metal band Great White launched into its opening number, “Desert Moon.” Sparks lit the insulation behind the stage and within ten seconds, flames ran across the ceiling. Most of the 96 victims died in the next few minutes, many engulfed in flames.

State and town officials said that neither nightclub nor band had applied for required state and local pyrotechnic permits. They have said the club appeared to have complied with state fire codes. “If a law was violated, we have a responsibility to see that justice is done,” state Atty. Gen. Patrick Lynch said Saturday. He declined to discuss almost any aspect of the investigation, including whether the state had a copy of the contract between the band and the club.

The band’s lead singer, Jack Russell, and the band’s management company have insisted they had the club’s permission. But the club’s owners, Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, have adamantly said they did not. A lawyer for the Derderians has said the band never told the owners of their intent to use a pyrotechnic display, and that the owners would never have approved.

Jeffrey Derderian, who also works as a reporter for a local television station, was in the club that night.

“It was a total shock to me to see the pyrotechnics,” Derderian said as he broke into tears at a news conference Saturday. “At no time did my brother or I have any knowledge that pyrotechnics were going to be used.” He added that the fire “is a horror that will haunt my family for the rest of our lives.”

A West Warwick, R.I., police officer places crime scene tape across the entrance to The Station nightclub, the site of a deadly fire. At least 96 people died in the blaze Thursday night, and federal, state and county authorities Saturday continued the investigation that they said could lead to criminal charges.

But Edward McPherson, a Los Angeles-based attorney for Great White flatly disputed this. “The owners of the club are trying to cast blame and I guess that’s normal in a tragedy like this,” McPherson said. “The band’s tour manager had very specific conversations with one of owners … if the club had denied permission, they would have taken it out of the show.”

City officials said the dangers of a pyrotechnics show in small club were obvious.

“No one in their right mind even would have applied for a pyrotechnic permit,” said Councilman Leo Constantino. “It’s like setting off fireworks in your house. You’d have to be nuts.”

Missing, presumed dead

One of the Great White band members, rhythm guitarist Ty Longley, is missing and presumed dead. Jack Russell and the rest of the band returned Saturday to Los Angeles after talking to state investigators.

“No one told them they couldn’t leave,” McPherson said. “They are very distraught and not in any condition to be talking to anybody.”

For the town of West Warwick, and for the families of the missing and presumed dead, the sense of tragedy only deepens with time. Some parents, sisters and brothers, wives, described waiting for hours after they learned of the fire in hopes their loved ones might walk in the door.

Thirty-one-year-old Michael Kulz worked six days a week at the Stop n Shop and was a devoted heavy metal fan. He traded days off with a friend to attend the Great White concert. He lived at home with his mother, Barbara Kulz, who spotted him in the video footage of a local television cameraman, who was at The Station on a story when the club exploded in flames.

Ramon Hickey, right, of West Warwick, R.I., comforts his wife, Ann Ellis Hickey, who holds a photograph of her friend, Bonnie Hamelin, who is still missing after a fire destroyed The Station nightclub Thursday in West Warwick, R.I..

“We honestly don’t have hope that Michael is alive anymore,” she said. “I kept waiting but somehow I knew he’d never come back.”

She knows many more of the presumed dead. Everyone knows everyone here. This is a working-class town, where 90 percent of the Italian, French and Portuguese-descent families are Catholic.

The jobs here are neither plentiful nor do they pay very well — many of the young have moved elsewhere in Rhode Island or southern Massachusetts and West Warwick’s median age is the state’s highest.

“We’re an old town,” said Bernard Magiera, the president of the city council, who moved here in 1946. “There’s not much here for the young.”

But few fall out of touch. “My daughter says to me today, ‘Ma, half the kids in my yearbook died last night,” said resident Rebecca Rice. “We’re missing two friends of my children, kids who really grew up in my house.”